Thursday, December 29, 2005

Crazy 2/4 Part II

That's the craziest I think I've ever seen 3 2/4 tables at the same time. LOL, just played my last hand. AK utg QQ9 flop 2 callers, both over 70% VPIP. Just insanely loose tonight. turn 7 I check button bets BB calls, river the lovely 4, button bets, BB calls, I fold (had decided to call the button down if BB folded) he turns over J4 and the button was on a pure bluff with K 3 or something stupid. So typical of tonight's cards. Oh well. Hey, i did make something like $40 playing heads up though. Maybe I've learned something from watching Daniel and dreamclown play 500/1000 heads up 3 straight nights lol.

Bankroll $4,521.05
($98.46) 2 1/2 hours of play on 3 2/4 BB tables.

Crazy betting all session from the mulitude of fish.

Unfortunately for me the manical fish had me in their crosshairs more often than not.

Here's one time that I got away.... Would you have checked the river also? lol Crazy. (keep in mind I was 0-2 with AA at this point and had just had my set of 6s cracked by....ah, I'll post that crazy hand first.

Notice what the gentleman who takes down the pot was playing. LOL.

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Preflop: Whatever is CO with 6d, 6h.
1 fold, UTG+1 raises, 3 folds, Whatever calls, Button calls, 1 fold, BB calls.

Flop: (8.50 SB) 8h, 5c, Td (4 players)
BB checks, UTG+1 bets, Whatever calls, Button calls, BB folds.

Turn: (5.75 BB) 7h (3 players)
UTG+1 bets, Whatever calls, Button calls.

River: (8.75 BB) 6c (3 players)
UTG+1 checks, Whatever bets, Button calls, UTG+1 calls.

Final Pot: 11.75 BB

Results in white below:
UTG+1 has Ad Ah (one pair, aces).
Whatever has 6d 6h (three of a kind, sixes).
Button has Ks 4c (straight, eight high).
Outcome: Button wins 11.75 BB.


Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (8 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Preflop: Whatever is MP2 with As, Ad. MP1 posts a blind of $3.
UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 (poster) checks, Whatever raises, 2 folds, SB calls, 1 fold, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls.

Flop: (11.50 SB) Jd, 3s, 8s (5 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, MP1 checks, Whatever bets, SB calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls.

Turn: (8.25 BB) Td (5 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, MP1 checks, Whatever bets, SB calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 raises, Whatever 3-bets, SB calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 caps, Whatever calls, SB calls, UTG folds, UTG+1 calls.

River: (27.25 BB) 2c (4 players)
SB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP1 checks, Whatever checks.

Final Pot: 27.25 BB

Results in white below:
UTG+1 has Kd Qc (high card, king).
MP1 has 8d 9d (one pair, eights).
Whatever has As Ad (one pair, aces).
SB has Qs Kc (high card, king).
Outcome: Whatever wins 27.25 BB.




More 2/4 Part 1 Revenge of the Donks

Starting off very rough. AA zero for 2. Just flopped my set with aces and was beaten by runner runner flush. The donks are trying to take me down tonight but I will prevail. Wow, yet ANOTHER river beat to a donkish fish move after flopping top pair. I can't stop these people. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Why is it that most nights seem to be like this? Why can't it be evened out a little more? Ridiculous beats already and I've only been playing 30 minutes and already down $80 playing nearly perfect poker. Wow.

AA 0-2 -$38.00
KK 1-2 +$14.75
QQ 0-0
JJ 0-1 -$14

Pub Poker and 2/4

1st session went out fairly quickly. 3rd level Ak versus QQ and I couldn't improve. Went home and played an hour of 2/4 and was down $129. Donks Strike Back. The most amazing hand of that session was AK in the SB with the button limping in with 28o. Yes, 2 8 OFFSUIT. Wow. Wasn't even soooooted. Of course the flop comes 22K and I lose a healthy amount of money.

Went back for the 2nd session and was card dead the entire session. Got 33 when blinds were 100/200 and I had 600 left so an auto-push for me. Called by 2 big stacks and then checked it down after a 367 rainbow flop. Woo-hoo for me. Checked it down until the river I should say since the turn was a diamond along with the river and I was out to a runner/runner QJ flush.

Oh well.

28th pays nothing. Would've been interesting to have 2000 chips because I felt the deck owed me some mojo.

Came home and loaded up the 2/4 tables at about 11:50pm. Played till 1:15am and ended up making $18.45 on the night. Favorite hand was 44 flopping my set and turning a boat and getting called down/reraised by J7 sooted (top pair) along with an overpair (QQ). $143 pot. WOW. 2nd favorite hand was A3 sooooted turning the nut flush against a set and 2 pair and top pair. $110 pot. WOW.

Nice comeback after getting down $129 on terrible luck. Sometimes the luck evens out. It's good to know that the one consistent is the donkish play at this level. Just amazing to watch sometimes.

Bankroll $4,619.51
$18.45
3 2/4 BB 2 1/2 hours. Got down 129 after an hour and played live 2nd session and came back and kicked butt winning about 150 in an hour and 1/2.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

More 2/4 - Best night yet.

$339.17
3 2/4 bad beat tables 2 1/2 hours. Beautiful night of poker. No complaints here. It was just a night of mostly missing the bad beats. Same bad players making the same bad plays that I always see but this time karma gave a little back. It should be noted that I am tightening up a little so my game is improving ever so slightly.

I watched Daniel Negraneau's heads up match as I played. He's playing an internet heads up specialist in the 500/1000 game on poker room (www.fullcontactpoker.com). He's been up around 80k to 100k most of the session. A lot of fun to watch after all of the pregame trashing talking by the dude he's destroying.

My bankroll now $4,601.06.

Monday, December 26, 2005

No poker for me today

Just watched my brother take down a 180 person $22 sit n go on Stars though. Big congrats J!

He's now $1080 richer. Nice.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

2/4 ugh

I HATE poker sometimes. It's just so stupid how some days you go zero for 11 on flush draws and get sucked out on repeatedly sometimes by runner/runner that is in the hand for some unknown reason. 1 hour 20 minute session of 2/4 and lost $90.75. No bad at all money wide but..... read my notes.
12/24/2005
($6.00)
1 $6 10 person sit n go. Sucky cards/luck.

12/25/2005
bankroll now $4,261.89
($90.75) on the session and $105.39 for the week.

3 2/4 BB 1 hour 20 minutes horrible luck again. *sigh* Why has it been like this 3 out of 4 sessions for the past month? I've done ok money wise but the frustration with 2/4 is building again. I have to work so freaking hard to make a measely $70 and then it's wiped out the next session by others' stupidity and my repeated and consistent missed draws.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Omaha H/L MTT and some more 2/4

Played in a 600 person $6 O H/L MTT on Party and placed 298th. Didn't have many hands and plus I'm not that great at omaha. I entered thinking it wasn't the H/L variety but I've played more of that strain anyway. I think I fold too often when I make the low but don't wanna chance it.

2/4 tables were amazingly soft tonight as I guess the holiday weekend plus the late hours have their effect. Set of aces went down in flames to another flopped broadway straight. LOL. 2nd time in 2 sessions that I've lost on a big set to a flopped broadway. Oh well.

12/23/2005
$74.50
1 600 person O H/L MTT $6 went out in 298th. Never had a hand. It was awful. Played 3 2/4 BB tables at the same time. Had some horrible beats but midnight on Friday nights sure is loose baby. Wow, some strange plays burned me but also made me $80.

$4,358.64 bankroll. Up $202.14 on the week. The last 4 sessions at 2/4 have seen me net over $397. Not bad at all. I'll try a few more MTTs this next week to give myself an outside shot of hitting $5k before the year is out lol. BTW aces went 2 for 4 tonight for MINUS $27.50. GRRR. :)

Friday, December 23, 2005

More frustrating 2/4 and sucky turbos

12/22/2005
$63.50
3 2/4 BB tables 3 hours. Got down $100 quick AGAIN but fought back AGAIN. So frustrating to get down over $130 just due to bad luck at the start of a session. Very nice to comeback though.

12/22/2005
($5.00)
3 sit n gos. Lost 2 turbos placed 2nd in limit 9 person non turbo. Couldn't win a 50/50 in the turbos and you have to do that in the early stages to have a chance as the blinds shoot up.

$4,284.14 bankroll.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Flu got me down

So I played 2 $5.25 heads up matches with a 102 degree fever.

1-1.

Bankroll $4,225.64

Monday, December 19, 2005

Monday Session Results Part 2

Very proud of how I stuck in there on 3 2/4 tables and came back from 90 down to cash in for a +$72 session. Played well and took my share of bad beats but hung tough. 2 nutty hands were AA preflop capped heads up and then the flop KQ10 for my opponents AJ. Beautiful.

Another was a guy raising the flop and turn with nothing more than a flush draw to my 2 pair and him hitting on the river for a nice $50 pot. Took advantage of the bad play though to finish up so I'm not complaining. 2 hour 15 minute session.

12/19/2005
($3.30)
3 turbo sit-n-gos for fun. Lost all 3 but only spent $3.30 in real dollars.
12/19/2005

$72.94 on the session.
3 2/4 badbeat tables. Survived some bad luck to have a nice session. Tightened up my play and did well.

Bankroll now $4,226.14.

$11 MTT, some sit n gos & some lovely 2/4

Interesting hand to go out on in the MTT. 1305 entrants and I went out in 268th or something like that. I had to sit out and lost 1000 chips but came back just in time for this:


*********** # 3 **************
PokerStars Game #3381357548: Tournament #16685617, Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (100/200) - 2005/12/19 - 21:33:16 (ET) Table '16685617 66' Seat #1 is the button Seat 1: DASH777 (28558 in chips)
Seat 2: Whatever (1440 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 3: gonzo3car (8136 in chips)
Seat 4: alex2208 (8450 in chips)
Seat 5: sadnud (6254 in chips)
Seat 6: O'DoyleRules (3925 in chips)
Seat 7: MWHATERSJNJ (5869 in chips)
Seat 9: bigdionne (14375 in chips)
DASH777: posts the ante 25
Whatever: posts the ante 25
gonzo3car: posts the ante 25
alex2208: posts the ante 25
sadnud: posts the ante 25
O'DoyleRules: posts the ante 25
MWHATERSJNJ: posts the ante 25
bigdionne: posts the ante 25
Whatever: posts small blind 100
gonzo3car: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Ac Js]
Whatever has returned
alex2208: folds
sadnud: folds
O'DoyleRules: folds
MWHATERSJNJ: raises 200 to 400
bigdionne: folds
DASH777: folds
Whatever: raises 1015 to 1415 and is all-in
gonzo3car: folds
MWHATERSJNJ: calls 1015
*** FLOP *** [6c 5d 8d]
*** TURN *** [6c 5d 8d] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [6c 5d 8d 2h] [Td]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Whatever: shows [Ac Js] (high card Ace)
MWHATERSJNJ: shows [3h 5h] (a pair of Fives)
MWHATERSJNJ collected 3230 from pot

Yea, boy 53 sooted for 1/4 of his chips? Who wouldn't jump at that? WHATEVER. Playing in 3 turbos right now and haven't gotten one playable hand. Yet.

Lost all 3 turbo sit n gos but only cost my bankroll $3.30 or so as the rest was the last of my $215 tournament dollars.

3 2/4 badbeat tables. Interesting. Here I am 28 minutes in and I've had the following:
JJ beaten by QQ. QQ lose to KK. KK cracked on back to back hands (once I had a set lose to a flush and the other time it lost to QQ when a Q spiked on the river. Lovely.) So up a quick $60 now sees me fighting tilt down $35. Oh well. THAT'S POKER, huh? Especially for me lately it seems. I can take the beats but it's when they all pile up on you it seems a little much. Wow, just lost with top pair AGAIN to AA. That's 3 times in 40 minutes. Wow. (LOL 4 times now in 50 minutes)

Time to settle back down and play good poker. Hopefully no more monster pocket pairs for me. :) Let's see how they're doing just for fun.

AA 1 for 1. Yay! +$25.50 net
KK 0 for 2. Boo! -$42.00 net
QQ 1 for 2. Meh. + $1.00 net
JJ 0 for 1. Sigh. - $14.00 net

I guess the back to back KK hands really ticked me off for a minute. Ah, top pair gets busted on the river AGAIN. Hooray for poker!!!!!!!!! Geeze. Wow - $93 down now and I'm playing well LOL. It happens.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

2 1 table turbos for fun

Wasting time waiting to work out.

1 10 person $3.30 turbo 1st place. Just got a little more aggresive than the others as the blinds got up there to the 100/200 mark. Also watched some amazingly bad play as you would expect at that level.

1 9 person $6.50 turbo 1st place. The funny part about this one was the guy's heads up play. I've messed around with 100+ $5.25 heads up matches and I've learned enough to know it's a huge mistake to consistently fold your SB when the blinds are 10% of your stack lol. This guy was waaaaaay too scared to play. When he finally did he shot me down with his pocket queens but I basically rolled over him starting with a 10 to 4 chip lead or something like that.

Anyway, a fun way to end my poker week which goes from Monday to Sunday for some strange reason. Actually, I guess it's because I started on a Monday way back in April.

Bankroll $4,156.50
Session $42.00
Week $98.98 so I was -$1.02 without the bonus lol. What a frustrating week but I survived it and learned a lot (I think).

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Pub Poker Double Points

Today they had poker at a new place so it was double points. I figured I should show up since I'm trying to make the top 32 this month for their big tourney. I did so badly in the 1st session that I decided to come back for the 2nd. There were only 35 entrants and points were paid to the top 16. I found myself in an interesting hand with 11 left.

Blinds were 1000/500 and I had 1000 left. UTG goes all in for 3500. Next person goes all in for 1500. Next person goes all in for 2000. Big stack calls 3500. I look down at QQ on the small blind. Should I push or should I fold? Seems like crazy talk to even consider folding but double points and I was looking at being in 7th with 7 left if I fold and the big chip stack takes out 3 people. BTW the Big blind had a biggish stack and he was still left to act.

I go all in for my last 1000. BB calls the 3500.

Flop Q and 2 hearts. Big blind goes all in and my heart sinks. I think he's on a flush draw and I'm right. AK hearts and when the turn hits the heart and the river nothing I'm out in 11th instead of at least 7th and my set is no good. Oops.

Screw 6 max

Wow, I've had the worst time at Party poker 6 max games. For some reason I kill the PokerStars 1/2 6 max but have been up and down and lately mostly down on the .5/1 Party Poker tables. I tried a new method this morning using the late position full ring chart from SSHE and did great. Until the turn and river lol. Nothing funner than runner runner . Sigh. -$176.70.

Moved to 2 3/6 bad beat tables and 1 2/4 bad beat table (full ring). Can you say tilt? I knew you could. Ended up $137.68 but I misplayed this hand a couple of ways. It was like the 4th hand dealt to me after I sat down at the full ring games and I was still tilting from 6 max.

** Dealing down cards **
[B]Dealt to Whatever [ Ks Qd ]
Whatever raises [$6].[/B]
johnplayer2 folds.
Tackman folds.
LavaLamp30 folds.
rjt535 calls [$6].
realfutbol23 folds.
Coalbee2 raises [$9].
DonGuacamole folds.
LadyLion514 raises [$9].
[b]Whatever calls [$6]. [/b] <---- perfect chance to get away from it
rjt535 calls [$6].
Coalbee2 calls [$3].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3d, 9s, Qc ]
LadyLion514 bets [$3].
[b]Whatever calls [$3].[/b]
rjt535 raises [$6].
Coalbee2 folds.
LadyLion514 calls [$3].
[b]Whatever calls [$3].[/b]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qh ]
LadyLion514 checks.
[b]Whatever checks.[/b] Ha ha! Gotcha!
rjt535 bets [$6].
LadyLion514 calls [$6].
[b]Whatever raises [$12].[/b]
rjt535 raises [$12].
LadyLion514 calls [$12].
Whatever raises [$12]. <-----another opportunity to listen to that voice inside of my head saying 'you're behind.' Lots of reasons to just call there.
rjt535 calls [$6].
LadyLion514 calls [$6].
** Dealing River ** [ 7s ]
LadyLion514 checks.
Whatever bets [$6].
rjt535 calls [$6]. <---- I guess he was afraid of quads or a higher set. Wow.
LadyLion514 calls [$6].
Whatever shows [ Ks, Qd ] three of a kind, queens.
[b]rjt535 shows [ 3h, 3s ] a full house, Threes full of queens.[/b]
LadyLion514 doesn't show [ Ah, As ] two pairs, aces and queens.
rjt535 wins $153.50 from the main pot with a full house, Threes full of queens.

Friday, December 16, 2005

I really hate poker

Bonuses are the only thing that keeps me plugging on sometimes. Another $2 lost in a 45 minute session of .5/1 6 max to clear the $100 bonus. Crazy stuff.

I am ready to move back to 2/4 badbeat jackpot and see if I learned anything from my last downswing and move to 3/6.


12/16/2005
$4,053.52
($2.00)
3 6 max .5/1 to clear bonus. Wow, the bad luck continues. Lost only $2 in a 45 minute session but have been getting sucked out on repeatedly. Very frustrating.
12/16/2005
$4,153.52 bankroll
$100.00
BONUS

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Pub Poker

14th in the first session for some points and then went out pretty early in the 2nd. Flopped an OESD on the 1st hand and it was downhill from there. Went all in with my last 625 with the blinds at 50/100 and several limpers with A9s. 2 including AA called. Whoops. I really didn't want to see a flop. Oh well.

1st session I played 4 hands that weren't on the blinds in 2 hours. Crazy bad cards. So hard to steal if you don't win a couple of pots early. AJs won a nice pot and doubled me up to help me make the points. 77 won a little pot unimproved, I stole the blinds with Q4s from the button (took me from 1200 to 1500, actually a big hand at the time). Went out with K10o from the button trying to steal again. JJ called me and I missed my king and gutshot (he had 2 of my jacks).

Plan to clear my Party bonus tonight and get some sleep. Pretty quiet week on the poker front.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

More 6 Max Hell

But luckily I was only at .5/1 on Party to clear the bonus.

Got down $75 in the first 30 minutes on 3 tables. It was amazing. Hit a low of $89 down before clawing my way back in 2 hours to only lose $2.

Crazy beats at the start. Best hand preflop/flop and then would get screwed on the turn or river or both. Oh well. Poker. Aces didn't hold up twice, kings 3 times. You get the idea. I will try to extract revenge on the .5/1 6 max tables later this week.

No Poker Monday

Watched an hour of the San Jose Bay WPT episode where Phil Gordon is trying to give away his chip lead and walked 2 miles on the treadmill while playing Ncaa Football on the Xbox. That's always interesting.

Worked out for the first time in forever so I'll be ready to work on clearing my $100 bonus tonight on Party.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Stuck

What do you do when you're stuck and the game is good? Keep playing. At least you should if you can keep your head. I know I tilted away my share of money this session but after 4 1/2 hours of bad beat after bad beat on 2/4 one of my 3 tables broke and I moved up to 3/6. I can afford 3/6 but never play it as I feel I should be beating 2/4 on a regular basis first.

Move up to catch up.

Well, about the time I moved up the cards started coming around on my 2 remaining 2/4 tables and I started the long climb out of a $350 hole. There was a maniac on the 3/6 table that was catching flops & rivers constantly. When I sat down he had $184 and 39 hands later he was at $650. This is 3/6 people! He rivered me twice for about $150 in pots and then I got him a couple of times. Played well on the 3/6 table but I started making huge strides on the 2/4s as my hands suddenly started holding up. It's always amazing when things change. It's like suddenly you can do no wrong.

After 6 hours I was down 'only' $174 and felt pretty good. I had been back to only $120 down but then took some more bad beats and was ready to quit. I unchecked the 'auto post blind' button on all 3 tables when this hand came up on the 3/6:

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (7 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Preflop: Whatever is MP1 with Jc, Qc.
1 fold, Whatever calls, MP2 calls, 2 folds, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: (4 SB) 4s, 9s, Tc (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Whatever bets, MP2 raises, SB folds, BB 3-bets, Whatever calls, MP2 caps, BB calls, Whatever calls.

Turn: (8 BB) 8c (3 players)
BB checks, Whatever checks, MP2 bets, BB calls, Whatever raises, MP2 3-bets, BB folds, Whatever caps, MP2 calls.

River: (17 BB) 5c (2 players)
Whatever bets, MP2 raises, Whatever 3-bets, MP2 calls.

Final Pot: 23 BB

Results in white below:
Whatever has Jc Qc (flush, queen high).
MP2 has Js Qs (straight, queen high).
Outcome: Whatever wins 23 BB.


Wow. What a tough beat to lay on someone for a $138 pot. It's about time. Crazy crap like that had been happening to me all day. :)

$4,057.52 bankroll
($31.75) on the 6 hour marathon session. Got back about $300 in the last hour of play. Amazing swing. I certainly noticed the difference in play between the 2 levels. 3/6 is tighter preflop and more active postflop which suits me fine. I will continue to try and tighten down on 2/4 and improve my game. There's plenty of work to be done - that's for sure. ($172.98) for the week. Ugh.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Off to the races 2/4

1st hand at my 3 tables:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (8 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Preflop: Whatever is MP2 with Ks, Kh.
UTG calls, 2 folds, Whatever raises, 4 folds, UTG calls.

Flop: (5.50 SB) 8d, 8s, Qh (2 players)
UTG checks, Whatever bets, UTG calls.

Turn: (3.75 BB) Jh (2 players)
UTG checks, Whatever bets, UTG calls.

River: (5.75 BB) Jc (2 players)
UTG bets, Whatever calls.

Final Pot: 7.75 BB

He had J10 looking for his gutshot on the flop. Of course. Not a horrible beat by any means but these little beats just seem to come in waves.

Sigh. It's gotten worse since then. I'll update when this torture is finished. Been a combination of card dead then flop dead then getting sucked out on. Incredible. No fun. I'm ready to go back to a month ago when I was experiencing the kinder, gentler side of variance.

------
And another
Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Preflop: Whatever is SB with Kh, 3h.
1 fold, UTG+1 raises, 5 folds, Whatever calls, BB calls.

Flop: (6 SB) 7h, 6h, 7d (3 players)
Whatever bets, BB calls, UTG+1 raises, Whatever calls, BB folds.

Turn: (5.50 BB) Th (2 players)
Whatever checks, UTG+1 bets, Whatever raises, UTG+1 3-bets, Whatever caps, UTG+1 calls.

River: (13.50 BB) 8c (2 players)
Whatever bets, UTG+1 calls.

Final Pot: 15.50 BB

The ole King hi flush beaten by an Ace hi flush.

Oh and just now a set over set situation for a $58 pot. Lovely.
--------------------
Think I'm making progress and then a hand like this

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Preflop: Whatever is Button with Kh, Kc. CO posts a blind of $2.
UTG calls, 1 fold, MP1 raises, 3 folds, Whatever 3-bets, 2 folds, UTG calls, MP1 calls.

Flop: (11.50 SB) 4s, Ks, 2c (3 players)
UTG checks, MP1 bets, Whatever calls, UTG folds.

Turn: (6.75 BB) 5c (2 players)
MP1 bets, Whatever raises, MP1 calls.

River: (10.75 BB) 3d (2 players)
MP1 checks, Whatever bets, MP1 calls.

Final Pot: 12.75 BB

Results in white below:
MP1 has Ad Kd (straight, five high).
Whatever has Kh Kc (three of a kind, kings).
Outcome: MP1 wins 12.75 BB.


Just lucky he didn't raise the river there to twist the knife.

Hey, but here's the silver lining - I had to deposit more funs since I got down to zero on a table and wanted to keep 3 tabling so I put in $400 to take advantage of their reload 25% up to $100 promotion.

Been hovering at -$200 to $250 just about the whole session until the set of Kings beat was followed by 3 big hands that finally held up. Down 'only' 150 now lol. The tables are good - I've just been getting pounded by some brutal beats followed by little spurts of tilt that have sucked another $40 or so out. Wow, back to $200+ down before I'm even able to finish the update. Amazing.

Casino on Net

Subject: Your free $10 from Casino-on-Net at 888.com
Dear Whatever,

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Blah blah blah.

I built mine up to $16 playing blackjack and then sat down at the Roulette wheel last night. Minimum bet $1 so I start betting the 25-36 bar. If I didn't hit I doubled it and so on. I won a few times and started putting out bets on individual numbers. Hit a couple of those and then put more on the 25-36 line and hit one with a $50 bet. Won my only red/black bet when I put $25 on black after red had hit 5 straight times. I got it up to $199 before losing it back down to $105 when it missed my 1/3 of the board 8 straight spins. Said 'what the hell' and put $100 on the 25-36 line (had been betting that with $25 chips the previous 2 rolls) only to see it miss by 1 spot. Put my last $5 on the same spot and of course it hits to get me back to $15. I never did check the cashout policy so I'm not sure that $199 was actually mine or not. I suspect it was if I chose to cashout. Whoops. That's why I play poker I guess.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

A little 2/4

Oh, and the Titan $1000 freeroll for this week's depositors. I desposited $50 in Titan this week to get a free 500 chip chipset from PokerLizard.com. 571 people registered for the freeroll but I think only about 300 actually played. I logged on to play a some cash games and was suprised to see it whisk me to my table in the freeroll. I was down to 1320 in chips (from 1500) and quickly dropped that down to 600 before tripling up. Built that all the way up to 17k before going card/flop dead late and going out in 41st or so with A10 in late position to the bigstack's A8 (she was one to my right and was on a blind steal. Had over 50k in chips for the tourney lead). I was down to 4700 and blinds were at 500/1000 to it was time to boogey. She raised it to 4000 and I went allin and an 8 on the flop ended my night. Top 30 paid. Oh well.

After that loaded up some 2/4 bad beat tables and wondered if my recent downswing would turn around. It did, but not before rearing it's ugly head again near the end of the session.

12/10/05
9:00 to 9:45pm

$79.75
3 tabled 2/4 BB. Played well but just went flop dead the last 20 minutes and gave back $40 in winnings (also rivered twice or would've gotten that back). Poker. A little loose on calls of bets from tight players. Need to fix that as that probably cost me at least $20. When a 13% VP$IP is raising and betting at you LAY IT DOWN unless you have an excellent hand or at least a killer draw. Duh.

Bankroll $4,089.27 for the week I'm down $141.23 now. Thinking I may enter a 180 person $22 sit n go on Stars to use some of my $39 in tournament money left over from winning the FPP $215 last week. I don't know. Need to find a block of time. I think those go a good 4 hours+ if you happen to get lucky enough to make the final table.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Pub Poker and 2/4 downswing

I don't have exact figures right now but last night I lost another $90 or so 3 tabling 2/4 bad beat on Party. Lots of bad beats and only one bad play by me that I noticed that cost me $12 or something. I played fine but when your 2 pair keeps getting beat by sets and your set of aces get beat by flopped straights there's not a whole lot you can do besides rely on your bankroll to get you through. Lost $40 3 tabling .10/.25 NL. I stink at NL cash games and I won't be doing that again for awhile lol.

Got a surprise chance to play in the 2nd session last night at Grahams. I couldn't wait to get back to it after my success in the 2nd session Wednesday night. Here's my notes:


12/8/2005
110 entrants
Grahams

Wow. Got there 15 minutes late and bluffed off 350 of my 1100 to a loose player on my left. Tripled up from 600 (50/100 blinds all in on flop of KQ7 - other 2 callers had Q7) with K9s when 9 hit on river for 2 pair. Another huge hand to take me to big stack at 5400 was 33 when I pushed after a short stack pushed and a medium stack called (I had both covered and figured it was debatable but with the blind structure I thought I'd take a chance). A8s for medium stack blanked but I rivered the flush to beat J9 that hit 9 on flop.

Cruised for awhile but then got to 15k when 7's hit a set and then to 24k when they hit a set again. Folded my way to the final table as a very aggressive big stack (maniac at times) sat at our table and I didn't get anything to trap him with. Funny hand A34 of hearts after he had raised preflop and then bet big into a smaller stack. Smaller stack thought about before finally folding A8 of spades face up. Maniac shows he was bluffing with J7 of clubs. They run it for fun. Turn would've been the J and the river a 7.

Down to 15k as I sit at my 2nd straight final table. 1st hand of final table (probably about 5th in chips out of 8) I look down to see AA. Blinds were 2/4 so I pushed 2 off of the button. SB had about 25k in chips and he calls and BB was the huge maniac chip stack but he folded. I was a little surprised. He was playing a ton of pots and was very loose and not afraid of going home. SB flips over QJ and my aces hold up. 34k in chips.

Pushed again with JJ for the blinds later and lost some to the blinds after 3 orbits or so. Down to about 25k and 5 handed when maniac raises and I look down at AKo. I push. He calls with AJs and I win a massive pot to take the chip lead by a little bit over him.

Got down to 3 handed - maniac limps on the button (4/8 now) and I look down at A3 and push trying to get heads up with BB who only has 9k left. He throws in his last chip for the call and maniac surprises me and calls his last 26k and flips over QQ. Whoops. No ace came and I was down to 12k and on the 4,000 chip SB heads up with the 100k Maniac. Not good. I push in my last 8k in the dark and look down to see Q10. Maniac calls in the dark for 4k more and flips over A10. Whoops. Game over.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Pub Poker Night with a little online micro action

Busted in the first session with this hand:

Big hand was 66 all in big chip stack called off 1/3 of his stack with 109 OFFSUIT saying 'I’m tired of people going all in'. 10 on flop & I was done another bad poker player gets chips. Good play bad result. He almost called my all-in semi-steal a couple of hands before when I held KQ. Blinds were 100/200 and I had 1800 when I went out.

2nd session I took 3rd out of about 55 or so entries.

Pushed much more tonight preflop with a decent PP or AK when facing 2 or 3 limpers. Double up or go home philosophy with the aggressive blind structure. Big hand was KK after short stack (Kjo) went in for last 500 (blinds 100/200) with one loose caller. On the SB I had 2500 and pushed thinking loose big stack might call and he did with AK. Got me up to 6000 or so and cruised from there to final table and knocked out one player on 2nd hand with KQo he called with Q9s. Up to 9000 (blinds 1000/2000) and then 2 hands later went out in SB with K3s vs. Q10o when 10 hit on flop.

Had a blast.

After I busted the 1st session while waiting for the 2nd session to start I played a Titan $500 freeroll and went out in 61st out of 89 when I hit a jack on the flop with J5. Went all in on turn but bigger stack had a straight flush draw and called and hit it on the river to beat me.

Made .75 playing 4 tables of .02/.04 while playing the freeroll so it was a successful night. :)

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Speed tourney on PP and one of those nights on 2/4

12/6/2005

2 sessions of 2/4 after this crap:
($22.00)
I learned that speed MTTs on PP are -EV lol. Blinds go up about every 4 or 5 hands (3 minutes) if people are playing slowly. Amazing. AK lost to KK and I was out in 6 hands or so. Whoops.

($0.79)
3 1/2 hours of 3 2/4 bad beat tables. Down $250+ most of the session with a low of around $320. It was amazing. I kept my cool the best I ever have though. Maybe I've turned a corner. Set over set, 2 pair vs sets, 2 pair versus flopped straight or flush whatever - it happened. And it happened a LOT. Sometimes on all three tables at once where high pocket pairs got taken out on the river.

AA 12 times certainly helped my cause. I think that's the most I've ever gotten it in one sitting. 9-3 with it taking the blinds once. My QQ versus KK on AAKQ board. Nice huh? Stuff like that again and again and again and again. Feels great to fight through it all though and at least come up even for the night on 2/4.

$4,154.27 bankroll. Down $76.23 on the week. No biggee. Feel very fortunate to have pulled myself out of the dive tonight. I've heard a good way to overcome bad beats is to just continue to play as long as the game is still good and you can keep your cool and play your A game. I think I did an excellent job of that. Ironically, my comeback wasn't aided by many monster pots as most of those left about 2 hours into my session (One of the really frustrating things about those river beats - they were monster pots for the most part and I wasn't getting my share of them, not by a long shot). I just chopped away and won the occasional $40 pot later on in the night. In my experience the tables tend to tighten up after 11pm central on week nights . They were crazy loose there from 9:30 central till 11 or so. I'm sure I'll kill it this week if I continue to plug away. I certainly need to tighten up though.

I'm calling too much with hands like K10o in early position. I need to get my VP$IP under 20%. It's at 29 right now and I'm sure that's part of my problem.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

The biggest .01/.02 NL pot I've ever seen

Sunday night waiting on my wife to watch tv with me I decided to play a little micro limit NL on PokerStars. I had $5 or so on there so I sat down at 2 .01/.02 NL tables. I immediately notice a maniac going all in almost every hand so I loaded the rest of my $ on to that table ($3.55 woo-hoo lol) and decided to wait for an ace. AQ did the trick and I doubled up on the river as a beautiful queen beat his 97 that had flopped a pair. Within 5 minutes I was up to $13, another player had $14 and our maniac had reloaded 4 times. He said he was a 30/60 limit player down from the nether regions to walk among the common folk.

He pushed again with his $5 and I had a decision to make with KJs. The stack to my left was slightly bigger but then again this was micro limits and I was just having fun anyway so I pushed all-in. The bigger stack pushed as well and I was sure I was behind. His AQo unimproved beat my KJs unimproved and our maniac friend hit a 3 on the flop and river to triple up with J3o lol. I was done but decided to watch the next hand. Our maniac pushes (of course) called by the huge stack and we have our $28.50 pot. Ace hi took it down but I now forget the details of the hand. Oh well.

Monday night I played .5/1 limit on Party for about 90 minutes and really stunk it up. -$49.74 playing 3 tables of 6 max.

Bankroll now $4,177.06. I'm gonna try to play some 2/4 full ring on the badbeat tables tonight.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

.05/.10 limit and pub poker

Won a heads up match late yesterday +10.00 then lost ($4.55) at 5 .05/.10 limit tables it's nice when you run bad at the lower limits. Maybe worked some of those bad beats out.

This afternoon played some more pub poker and went out after 45 minutes. Big hand was 810s from mid position limping in 50/100 blinds. Had 1600 chips (started with 1100). 4 of us to the flop of 8 5 4 rainbow. check, check I bet out 300 with 1 call. K on the turn big stack checked to me and I considered checking but remembering my last big bluffed out pot I bet 400 and he immediately raised to 800. Probably should have folded as I only had 800 left I thought about it but called. 7 on river he puts me all in for last 400 chips and I reluctantly fold.

He showed 2 pair with K7o. Nice. I guess he called with nothing because of the gutshot and big stack? Not sure. Oh well. 99 next hand raised to 250 in front of me so I go all in. 2 callers & turned flush puts me out.

Not a lot of play in these things. It makes me think I should've massively overbet the pot on the flop. I don't know.

+$288.47 on the week. Bankroll $4,230.50.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

No poker last night

but + $92.77 today.

Won a $5.25 9 person sit-n-go. Hadn't played one of those on Stars in forever. Won a 4 person $5.25 Heads up shootout and 5 heads up matches. My heads up record since winning the $215 tournament dollars is now 19-12. 61% win percentage. Not too great but mission accomplished. I converted the $215 tournament dollars into $195 via heads up and tacked on another $23.50 from the 9 person sit-n-go. Still have $39.25 in tourney dollars left. I'll probably play an 18 person $11 with that and maybe a 180 person $22 sit-n-go Monday. We'll see.

Cashed out $1,000 and will deposit that into my savings account and await the next PokerStars reload bonus. I'll hit Party Poker 6 max cash games next week and hit the 2/4 bad beat full ring tables when the jackpot gets over $200,000.

Roll now at $4,225.05

Friday, December 02, 2005

Pub Poker

Got there at about 9:45pm for the second session. An amazing number of people were signed up. We ended up having 90+ for the tourney. 3rd or 4th hand I got J10o in middle position folds to me (weird) so I raise it 3 or 4x the blind and I get one caller. Flop comes A 9 3, he looks at it carefully, looks back at his cards like he might have a 9, not sure and checks. (This was one of the 2 guys at our table that had never played tournament poker (even free lol) before. They didn't know what the blinds were, etc.) So I bet out a little less than the pot and he quickly mucked.

The blinds went from 10/20 to 25/50 in 8 hands. Yes, 8 hands. I'm still trying to figure out how to play this style but I'm thinking next time I'm gonna limp a little more late with whatever and try to gamble it up. That or play extremely tight/aggressive. Anyway, KJs for a raise with 2 limpers and flop comes K23. I bet out 300 chips (started with 1300) and get 2 callers, maybe even 3 I forget. I had position so they check to me on the turn K23(4) and I check behind them not too sure if my jack is good. The river is the beautiful 5 and I knew I was beat by the guy across from me before he reached for chips so I quickly threw it away as he bet out the pot (or so).

(EDIT - actually I remember now that he overbet the pot now but either way it would've put me all in. Also, my brother overheard them talking later and it turns out he had QQ. Now I feel REALLY stupid for not betting the turn with the rest of my chips. That was a good situation for double/triple up or go home. I suck.)

That left me with about 400 chips as the blinds went up yet again to 100/200 (and only 5 minutes or so from 200/400). I look down to see AJo with 2 limpers in front of me. That's 700 in the pot so I pushed my remained chips in and they both quickly called. Flop KKQ and I figured a 10 was my only hope. AQ took it down and I was out after 1 hour and 15 minutes. Had a great time.

Watched my brother play a couple of hands (he was at the same table) and then went home. Checked my phone this morning and he ended up taking the whole thing down. Not bad for his 3rd live tourney - even if most of these people don't exactly have mad skillz. :)

Bankroll $4,132.28 +$190.25 on the week so far.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

More heads up and a PP sit n go

1-1 $5.25 heads up and $11 10 person sng on Party for -$1 hit to the bankroll so far today (used tourney dollars for heads up matches).

Didn't have as much time as I thought I did for the sit n go and donked off my chips with Q4 sooted.

Oh well.
________________Update 9:30pm

Played a bunch of heads up and got more and more frustrated getting sucked out on. Oh well.

Won 7 and lost 5. Terrible, terrible record. I expected to win 2/3 of these. Oh yea, also played 2 5.25 sit n gos and didn't place. I suck.

PS up to $907 though 12-9 in heads up and 0-2 in sit n gos since getting the $215 tourney dollars. Getting closer to cashing out. Going to play some Pub Poker now.